From the writing prompt: Part. This is about a fairy in one of my Pixie Hollow stories, Almond Tanglebreeze’s First Ball. Ginger Rainglow is Almond’s best friend, but I have to nail down her persona, because she’s an all-out dud in my story at the moment. (And yes…I’ve thrown out Pixie Hollow’s odd fairy birth thing and gone the more traditional route.)

My last name is Rainglow. My mother and father are water-talents and they’ve trained me to be a water-talent. But deep inside, I think I’m part light-talent. When I was young I tried to show my parents how light and water were so similar, and so interwoven. I showed the my favorite trick, taking a water drop between my hands and angling it so that a beam of sunlight struck right through it, and then split into 7 colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. And I could watch water reflecting sunlight for hours. I love to think about the difference between the light of the sun, so bright and warm, and the light of the moon, so cool and calm. Sunsets and sunrises alike astonish me, and I know it’s related to the way that beam of light made a rainbow on our wall at home. I just don’t know how, and I am determined to find out.

The other thing that separates me and my parents is our personalities. My parents are gloomy, like mainland rain, but I would rather glow and spark!

I care about my parents. But I feel so misunderstood by them. All the time they are telling me to act more like a calm, steady water-talent. But I can’t help how excited I get by things. The world is just so interesting. There is so much to know!

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So what is the solution to Ginger’s parent problem? According to worldly wisdom it would be:

Ginger just goes on being herself and her parents eventually understand.

Or, Ginger talks to her parents and explains to them how much she likes light.

Her parents realize her maturity and decide to let her live her own life.

But to make a good story it would be more like:

Something Ginger does with light makes a huge impact on her parents. Saves their lives, or some animal’s life, or saves Pixie Hollow.

i.e. Maybe something goes wrong at the ball, and Ginger realizes it’s because of water and light somehow.

But this story is about Almond. So how does she fit into Ginger’s story? At the moment Ginger has more of a story-inspiring character. What does Almond need to make her life a story?